South Korea’s KF-21 fighter jet conducts successful maiden flight

Asia-Pacific, News July 22, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

South Korean Air Force conducted a successful flight test of the country’s first indigenously produced 4.5th generation KF-21 ‘Boramae’ fighter jet.

It took Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) almost 20 years to turn the country’s former president Daejung Kim’s vision into a reality. South Korea has now become the 13th country in the world to have its own fighter jet and the eighth country to be producing supersonic fighter jets.

The first functional prototype of the KF-21 ‘Boramae’ (Hawk) aircraft was unveiled during a roll-out ceremony held at the KAI headquarters in 2015. Earlier in June 2022, the first ground-based engine thrust test was conducted for the KF-21. The 4.5-generation fighter jet is not a stealth aircraft, but experts said they would research and explore a possible conversion with additional features in the future.

The South Korean Ministry of Defense announced that the jet took off from a military airfield at Sacheon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, and flew for 33 minutes. The jet attained the maximum speed of 400 km/h before landing back at the same airfield. The jet was not tested to break the supersonic speed barrier for its maiden flight. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) plans to build at least six flyable prototypes and complete a total of 2,200 flight tests before the aircraft would be put into factory production in 2026.

The KF-21 is a multi-role aircraft capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. KAI plans to build a batch of 40 jets between 2026 and 2028. The first batch of the KF-21 jets would be called Block 1. In the next phase of production, KAI plans to produce at least 80 news KF-21 fighter jets by 2032.

South Korea's indigenously developed fighter jet KF-21 taking first flight — *^{South Korea’s indigenously developed fighter jet KF-21 taking its first flight. (Image Credit: Republic of Korea Air Force/videograb by IRIA)}*

Each KF-21 fighter jet is expected to cost around $65 million. The fighter would also have low operational costs and ease of maintenance. KF-21 is often compared to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet, as many of its features and design characteristics are inspired by F-35, however, where it took Lockheed Martin almost 20 years and nearly $59.2 billion to develop F-35 fighter jets, the KAI’s KF-21 project came up with a prototype in less than six years and one-sixth of the budget as compared to F-35 aircraft.

South Korea’s KF-21 is a 4.5-generation multi-role fighter jet that comes in both single-seat and double-seat configurations. The jet can carry a maximum payload of 7,700 and it is capable of flying at speeds of 2,200 km/h with a flying range of 2,900km.

Each of the KF-21 fighter jets would be equipped with an electronic radar and an infrared target tracker. The KF-21 is expected to be armed with South Korea-developed ALCM (air-launched cruise missile) and 10 other air-to-ground weapons, including METEOR air-to-air missiles for the first time in Asia. The Korean military also plans to integrate hypersonic missiles, which are currently under development, into the KF-21 armament.

In 2014, South Korea and Indonesia agreed to jointly develop the KF-21 fighter jet. Indonesia funded around 20 percent of the total development cost and plans to acquire 50 planes for its air force and is also seeking technology transfers.